ProtVirDB: a database of protozoan virulent proteins

ProtVirDB is a comprehensive and user-friendly web-based knowledgebase of virulent proteins belonging to protozoan species. The database will facilitate research and provide an integrated platform for comparative studies of virulent proteins in different parasitic protozoans and organize them under a unifying classification schema with functional categories. Remarkably, one-third of the protein sequences in the database showed presence of either mono- or hetero-repeats, or both concomitantly hence reiterating the importance of repeats in parasite virulence mechanisms. A number of useful bioinformatics tools including BLAST and tools for phylogenetic analysis are integrated with the database. With the rapidly burgeoning interest in the pathogenesis mechanisms of protozoans and ongoing genome sequencing projects, we anticipate that the database will be a useful tool for the research community.